Make Your Move Katherine

God will safeguard you from them

Ju

“Miss Ju Lee,” the old spirit woman said as she floated around to her making no sound as her ghostly body pass through everything and she pushed her face near the queen’s and sniffed. “Yes, I smell it,” she grinned widely showing her missing front tooth gap and Ju shivered.

When would she get used to this grave, gray-looking ‘familiar’?

Ju stared at the spirited form of the old wrinkled woman who had appeared to her just days ago and declared herself as her assistant.

“Don’t be scared dear,” her raspy voice had said quickly when Ju had picked up her lamp to smash it over her head, that night. And why not? It had been 12 am and a cackling old woman had been sniffing her. Gasping and choking at the same time…to come eye to eye with wrinkles and a face filled with growing flesh and warts. Imagine waking up to the smell of ‘old flesh’ and opening your eyes to see in the pale moonlit filled room, the scariest human you’d ever seen, mere inches away from your eyes. Floating and see-through.

“I am here to help you,” she had gone on saying and she had floated back to the wall, opposite the foot of her bed. “I am your familiar.”

That was when Ju had raced out off her bed- she knew just how frightening a demon creature was supposed to look. Not really- as she’s never seen one but her grandmother had told her about it as she had one. “Dwarf-like but not like snow white,” her nana had said. She only had her grandmother’s teaching as her mother had not gotten the special gene-power. But her grandmother had died long before Ju had fully understood what she was gifted with. Ju had to learn things on her own.

But she remembered her nana’s words- the main purpose of familiars was to serve a young witch, providing protection for them as they came into their new powers. Ju never had one when she had now come into her power. So, what the hell she had thought when the floaty woman had said so.

She had switched on the bedroom light, having forgotten she could have just simply said, “Lights on,” and her lights would have come on. Ju had forgotten she was a nude sleeper too.

The woman was nowhere near the floor- no feet in fact. Just a floating dress with arms and a head … a horrible looking one too. Her heart had almost busted out of her chest from the frightful sight. This was no short-child demon- but a spirit form of an old woman.

Now, Ju looked at the old woman that nobody else could see besides her and nodded with her head to move away from the queen. How she dreaded the former king’s mage appearing to her as she felt it was his fault the wrinkled nameless woman had entered her life. Ju could feel her power growing and figured it was the reason behind the woman’s sudden appearance. She couldn’t help but feel a little pride in herself for she had learned everything on her own.

Although she only knew a few practices, ‘defense’ protection and mana- healing spells mostly. Defense is the ability to protect her consciousness from others penetrating her mind- more of a systematic study her nana taught her. A dabble here and there in illusion and manipulation too.

It was a thin line to cross over into harming others.

She wielded her grandmother’s wand while she recited the signature line told to her by Delun, followed with, “Reveal yourself to me.” She was careful to not be demanding but ‘more of a coaxing way’ as cautioned by Delun.

And the queen’s left arm lit up in a very eerie light red with the concealed amulet, beneath her flimsy throw over. Ju’s eyes bulged. The queen indeed was the one they had thought she was and Delun’s chant had proven it- not that she had been in any doubt in her ability in finding the king’s match but the older mage had wanted proof.

And she was wearing an amulet just as the mage had asked her to look for. Except it was not a piece of jewelry as she had anticipated but imprinted onto her flesh- unless she had a piece of jewel there at the moment… which Ju doubted. This also meant that it was hidden from the naked eye and Ju would have missed it too had it not illuminated itself when she enchanted the words Delun had recited to her just less than an hour ago.

Ju could not see it however, for it was covered by the clothing and she wondered if she would have to ‘accidentally’ drop a glass of water on the queen. She grimaced.

“God will safeguard you from them,” the nameless woman who now had her forehead pressed onto the queen’s arm said and turned to look at her.

Ju blinked thrice. It was so spooky where the ghost-like creature did that. She literally looked beneath the queen’s clothing at her arm. The young mage shivered.

“Arabic,” the old woman went on to say and floated to her, turning back to stare at the queen. Ju shifted her body a bit, uncomfortable still with being near someone so- undead?

“The phoenix is calling him? Not me? The bird wants him…” the queen mumbled as she stood up.

‘Do I need to actually see it? It’s there, after all, I saw the glow just as the mage said I would.’

Just as if by a miracle, her majesty got up and took off her jacket and threw it over the back of a chair and paced the large room. Ju could not believe her luck and stared at the upright sword in the middle of the words that surrounded it in a circular way. She did not understand the words as it was in a symbolic form.

“God will safeguard you from them.”

But the sword she knew and recognized it because of the infinity symbol on the tip of the blade and the red stone with the two blue ones above it. Oscar had it. It was the same blade he used to slice through the air. At first, Ju had only known how to take him to his chosen one but after the marriage, she found that she could send Oscar to other places too. All he had to do was picture it.

And all that knowledge came to her after the queen had held a knife to her neck. There was something about the queen that was connected to her. Which meant her bond with Oscar was now extended to both of them. She had a bigger role to play with both of them than anyone ever realized.

But what?

“An amuletum is an object that is generally worn for protection and made from a durable material but can also be in words,” the unwanted ‘familiar’ was now saying to her. The familiar knew Arabic and Latin…interesting Ju’s mind was whirling.

Her phone vibrated on the desk behind her but she ignored it. It was either Eric or the fan club. Tomorrow is Saturday, she was off and she would send a picture of Anthony to the account. She had just the perfect picture of him- looking into the direction of the early rise of the morning sun with his eyes closed. Last month she had taken it when he had been in the castle garden looking at king Drago but the date wasn’t important. She even had the perfect caption- ‘When we greet each other’ #morningsun. His following was huge and a little cray-cray. But even she was excited for she would get two hours of him on the training ground.

“What do I do now, Ju?” Queen Katherine covered her cheeks- very ‘Kevin McAllister-like’ from ‘Home Alone’ a movie she was obsessed with since childhood and stared at the shelves behind Ju.

“Do?” the mage chuckled and walked over to her, “Just do what it is you have been doing- nothing.”

“What do you mean?” a burning-face-from-embarrassment-queen, queried.

“I mean, he has court now, so nothing. You have to wait until the effect wears off if you mean to- er- well- heh-heh… ahem, him,” the mage replied looking to the floor.

“I- what- tch…no…what?” the queen stuttered getting up to fan her face with her fingers as if that would cool down her thoughts that were beginning to take a different approach with the mention of ‘heh-heh-ing’. Oscar’s face and naked body was all over her feverish mind now Ju figured. What great lengths one’s mind had to go through to picture one whom they had never seen naked…well naked.

She’d been there quite a few times before but she had seen Anthony’s- everything. His father should be proud- whoa.

The mage looked at the queen as she left her lab and the nervous smile left her face. A worrisome frown took its place on her forehead.

Ju had been feeling for the longest while that the time had come for someone to expose the truth to, Her Majesty. She could not even begin to imagine what the queen was feeling. To be in a contracted marriage with a vampire king you disliked, who chomps on you now and then, you hate him and now you’re attracted to him. The queen had better buckle up for it was about to get even bumpier- for her.

The king is a force of nature. Ju, might not know what he was feeling but she knew her king and if he had to suppress his feelings with her magic…what would actually happen when court proceedings were over?